The 3 Rs of Education: Respect, Reality, Reason

Monday, July 17, 2017

I hope to come back and actually "blog" about this and research this, but I'm also writing a novel, organizing for the upcoming homeschooling year, getting ready for Vacation Bible School, rearranging and constructing furniture, etc...So busy!

But...

I came upon this and couldn't forget about it. It's one of those "OMG" links to the evil machine of the education empire.

CASEL- mentioned in the link above, Linda Darling Hammond is on the board. Many physchologists and special ed advocates are, too, which seems counterproductive...as in..let's record SEL data on every student. If, say, Billy has some anger issues due to poverty (food insecurity etc) and borderline Autism Spectrum, he might have lower SEL Scores so let's record all that in the p20 pipeline. Let's let this data be insecure and let Educational Technocrats manage the info and pass it on to Billy's college and career. Who would want to hire Billy who has low SEL skills? How is this good for psychology and special ed advocates? It isn't. It is a control mechanism.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/privacy-issues-state-longitudinal-data-systems/cogs-in-the-machine-big-data-common-core-and-national-testing/ has a link to the PDF of the white paper, Cogs in the Machine. Below are some quotes from it.

.....and....I just may be back to blogging!!!

SLDS....why I don't put my kids in public schools, is reiterated in CITM (Cogs in the Machine)....

"establish and use pre-K-through-college and career data systems to track progress and foster continuous improvement . . . This legislation expanded the requirements for state SLDS, mandating that grantee

states track children “from early childhood through the start of a young adult’s career."

Cradle to grave, my friends. Here's more!

"Department of Health and Human Services. Announced in 2011, ELC was designed to increase the number of children from birth through age five enrolled in a government pre-K program (instead of being at home with family or in private childcare).57 Among other requirements, applicant states were judged on their commitment to “building or enhancing data systems to monitor the status of children’s learning and development from preschool through third grade . . . .”58 These data systems had to contain certain “essential elements,” including child and family demographic information and measures of “language and literacy development, cognition and general knowledge (including early mathematics and early scientific development), approaches toward learning, physical well-being and motor development (including adaptive skills), and social and emotional development.”59 And the states had to demonstrate a “unique statewide child identifier or another highly accurate,

￼proven method to link data on that child . . . to and from the Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS)"

Cradle to grave, my friends. Yes, I said it already but it needs reiterating. THIS IS REAL. No joke. No conspiracy theory needed.

"The American Civil Liberties Union has noted:

According to the Fordham Center on Law and Information Policy, which reviewed the state data collection practices on K-12 students in all 50 states, data collected by particular states includes pregnancy, mental health information, criminal history, birth order, victims of peer violence, parental education, medical test results, and birth weight. The study also found that information was not being handled in compliance with current law, and that there were no clear rules for accessing the information"

This means schools are collecting data on over 400 points, things/points of data like birth order, even......who needs to know this? And if there are NO CLEAR RULES FOR ACCESSING THIS info, let alone data breeches, ANYONE can conceivably KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR CHILD....even their address, etc, this is CHILD EXPLOITATION MANDATED BY YOUR GOVERNMENT. Sorry for the cap letters but this is something so few know or want to believe but it is true and I'm livid about it.

But wait there's more. This extends, as said, cradle to grave. Here's part of the cradle section;

"ECDC
released a February 2014 report finding that
only Pennsylvania, so far, links “child-level
data” across all early-education programs
and its K-12 system, but nearly every other
state plans to create such linkages in the near
future.his requires using a unique student
ID number, which some states generate using
birth certificates.The comprehensive type
of data ECDC encourages states to collect
includes body-mass index, developmental

screenings, and information collected from
home visits.Thirty states currently link
some early-childhood data to K-12 data and,
thanks to federal prodding through SLDS
grants and Head Start funding, nearly all plan
to expand and centralize their data-collection
on small children.A bipartisan preschool
expansion bill in Congress right now, titled
the “Strong Start for America’s Children Act,”
would require states to tie early-childhood
data to K-12 systems. "

But as we delve further into a world of Big Data, we as consumers are constantly at risk of data security breaches, such as the Target credit card fiasco, Premera Healthcare, Home Depot, and the US Military to name a few seen in an info graphic here. Millions upon millions of people's social security numbers, credit card numbers, and worse were jeopardized. Your child could be next.

But don't worry, the US Government ensures you that your child's health and education data is safe and secure - never mind that the US military and the IRS had security breeches, you're safe, trust us, we're the government.

Ok, you say, but what info can schools possibly have on my child? Maybe their name, birthdate, and report card grades? No big deal.

But it is.Because schools collect a whole lot more on your child and even you yourself, if you are a caretaker of your child. Remember a teacher's empty threat, "This will go down on your permanent record"? It is no longer a threat but an Orwellian reality.To highlight key points of a Washington Post Article, there is indeed a lot more being collected on your child and family than you could ever suspect, and it is not secure as you would hope.To quote a quote within a quote in the aforementioned Washington Post Article,"During aFebruary 2015 congressional hearingon“How Emerging Technology Affects Student Privacy,”Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin asked the panel to “provide a summary of all the information collected by the time a student reaches graduate school.” Joel Reidenberg, director of the Center on Law & Information Policy at Fordham Law School, responded:

“Just think George Orwell, and take it to the nth degree. We’re in an environment of surveillance, essentially. It will be an extraordinarily rich data set of your life.” "

To expand upon this, which I will mention again in this blog post, the government is creating a "rich data set" of health data, school data, and career data as one. Reidenberg is not exaggerating with his haunting statement on the Orwellian at a set being put into place RIGHT NOW.Resistance is futile.

"Most student data is gathered at school via multiple routes; either through children’s online usage or information provided by parents, teachers or other school staff. A student’s education record generally includes demographic information, including race, ethnicity, and income level; discipline records, grades and test scores, disabilities and Individual Education Plans (IEPs), mental health and medical history, counseling records and much more.

Under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), medical and counseling records that are included in your child’s education records are unprotected by HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act passed by Congress in 1996). Thus, very sensitive mental and physical health information can be shared outside of the school without parent consent."

Even as your child, an unwilling pawn, simply clicks "3" on some educational software game in the classroom, data is being collected and disseminated. Not only may their results be collected (as in "got 8/10 multiplication problems correct") but their browsing behavior is collected for non-education reasons- for profit- to help target advertisement as explained here.

Your child's test scores, in fact their entire academic record, are "uploaded" and can be given or sold to "educational" people and organizations. Your child's behavior record , any school counseling, and all medical records that the school has are included as well. Special Education students have a plethora of private data in their IEPs which is, you guessed it, available to those who have a justifiable reason (a loose meaning of the term) to access it.

And to repeat a very key point, your child's information can legally be shared outside of the school without your consent.

Much of this data is part of the SLDS or Statewide Longitudinal Data System, which can be summed up here, and it is actually far more than it seems to be. One might envision a "virtual transcript" for each student, but it aims to collect far more for far longer, as part of the SLDS- linked P-16 (a.k.a. P-20, B-20, P12), a literal cradle to the grave data set on each child. Just google P-20 and you will find more information than you need, from most every state, school district, and college in the nation. Wikipedia does a satisfactory job of summarizing it very briefly here; there is far much more to explain and learn if you wish. One key point is that it states each child has a unique, secure identifier to NOT link the data to the person, but many schools do not know how to encrypt student data (not to mention the risk of "hackers"), mentioned here- student data should be, and often is, encrypted, but there is no law in place to ensure it is encrypted.

So what data is indeed being collected? Every state, and indeed every school collects different information, but any information collected by the school in any form can easily be part of the data set. The CEDS or Common Educaton Data Standards list all sets of information which can be collected on students, and disseminated to employers (a.k.a. the workforce), colleges, research organizations, curriculum/textbook companies, school staff, government employees (such as those in health or education departments) to name a few. The CEDS "list" of data is here and here (a blog post of mine) through California's SLDS called CALPADs, and includes parameters for data on your child such as;

* class start time

* home address

*family income

* disciplinary record including perpetrator, witness, and victim information

I just ask all readers to think: If a school doesn't encrypt this data (therefore it connects your child's name to all this information) or someone "hacks" this data, are you comfortable with that data "out there"? In a best case scenario, are you comfortable with this data being collected on your children? Do you feel your prenatal care information, mental health data, etc should be provided to your child's future employer, a textbook company, a university student collecting data?

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

cradle to grave california (< thats a link right there) connect ed has linked learning, part of California's P20 crafle to grave data collection on children.

Related to it is linked learning which is all new to me. Ok well I knew California had to have some cradle to career aspects but I had yet to find concrete evidence.

Anyway I found both those links from CommonCoreDiva and her blog/article at common core diva

Sure....gettig more kids to complete high school is awesome. But using something everyone can rally behind (right? Increasing graduation rates, yes please!)" But dangling the carrot and influencing "warm fuzzies" and emotions of everyone is a propahanda tactic and hiding behind good will is social efficiency and probably some "lining the coffers" for the school to prison pipeline. Little Jacob stole milk money in first grade and listened to heavy metal in high school so he is likely to go to prison, best not encourage college, and Emma wants to be a physicist but she borrows when subtracting instead of using the laboriois common core method, thus, she failed third grade math so put her on the career path of dishwasher..... here is one more bit about it..

...what happens if there is a data security breach like happemed at Target or Home Depot or Amazom or... the list goes on. Be afraid. Heres the link, here it is.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

A school district near me has teachers who are seriously threatening a strike over class size and pay. I have been a teacher and am all about class size reduction (16 per class. Believe me. Its the perfect number, and test scores proving otherwise are bunk, but that is another topic). I do think teaching is often an under-respected profession. But. A big but. (Yes this is not proper English, carry on.) When at least in my own dostrict, children ard using the same textbooks I used in middle school and the district is in violation, with double the ed code/ by law caseload of special ed preschool students, I can say this - schools need the money. Schools need "fixing". More money with the same practices, less money with the same practices, more money for teachers, it won't work until we hit reboot on the entire system.

Wait where was I going here?

Ah yes, interview with the vampire. This district near me is hiring substitutes to cross the line; at first, people with a BA degree and hopefully CBEST, the pre-req to suhstitute teach. Then, honestly, whoever, or just smooshing two hundred kids into the auditorium with one substitute and a movie. They are begging parents to send their kids to school because they cannot afford to lose ADA (attendance funding) even though the kids will be under-taught and under-supervised. Perhaps the subs they hire after the initial bit will no longer have CBEST or experience. They are offering $295 per day in a desperate attempt to hire enough teachers for 21,000 students. This is a district with 80% free or reduced lunch, 60% minority, in a highly gang ridden area, students who do not need a shoddy education or to be babysat by random unqualified people.

The district, as stated, is offering $295 per day for subs willing to cross the picket line. This is the same approxomate pay for a "real" salaried and tenured (and striking) teacher! Usually, subs earn between $90-$125. They cannot pull from the pull of district subs due to conflict of interest.

So. I am making mortal enemies and have an interview to be an on-call, lime crossing sub. My mother, a former teacher, says this is the nail in the coffin to my teaching career. Perhaps it is, and perhaps this is why I cannot seem to keep a job long enough to be tenured. I do not give a **** about politics, political correctedness, etc when the sake of children is at hand. Sure, teachers deserve good pay, smaller class sizes are a godsend (ever taught a class of 38 at risk high schoolers? 36 fifth graders including wards of the state? That alone will make you want smaller class sizes). But it doesnt negate the fact that 21,000 children, mostly "at risk", at the bottom of the social ladder, children who witness violence and hunger daily, need a caring memtor and an education to give them the hope and tools to empower themselves for a better life and better world. When all they have to look forward to is a safe classroom and smiling teacher, how do you think they feel when they are abandoned by their only sense of normalcy, structure, support?

That is why I am willing to cross the line. So many times, I speak up for the children and always suffer the consequences. But i refuse to die someday, knowing I gabe in to my morals and towed the line to appease someone while leaving children in the dust.

Friday, October 24, 2014

I will try and do weekly links to interesting articles, with brief commentary. So here goes

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/1117Every school I hsbe worked in has banned personal electronics. This includes Ipods and other musical listening devices. I have secretly experimented and allowed a triwl run of students listening to their music on headphones. I do not have any empirical data, but did notice less behavioral problems, especially among students who usually refuse to do any schooleork. When "plugged in", thry could tune out and listen to music instead of disrupting others. Many students seemed to focus better on the task at hand. Thry could tune out other noises and let thr emotions and beats of the music kind of fuel them. They even begged to listen to music of their choice for exams, but that is VERY forbidden by the testing business for fear of cheating. Oh well. Here is some proof that music helps work productivity. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/11179017/This-is-the-kind-of-music-you-should-listen-to-at-work.html

So, if I ruled education, not only would students "plug in to music", but start school later in the day. I recall leaving the house for high school at 6:30am, earlier if I was to catch the bus. Kids near the attendance boundaries catch the bus at 5:55am. I recall the pain and torture of waking up before dawn. I remember getting my desk rapped with a ruler, the whoosh of air mere nanometers from my face, in an attempt to wake me in AP French IV at 7:10am. And yet schools refuse to start high school later in the day, or even offering a tiered plan; students in sports or working can attend 7-2 and then the rest can attend 9-4, or students get to choose from the two. So many studies prove how biologically, teens don't function at 7am and need their sleep; their bodies working best when going to bed late and rising late. Here is but one study. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/25/pediatricians-late-school-start-time-good-for-teens/14338565/ surely a late start time would benefit children and learning, so of course we do not do it. How else could we profit from academic intervention curriculum and medication to keep children happy, attentive, and alert at the crack of dawn? more about later start times

Somehow this relates to another link, http://online.wsj.com/articles/for-more-teens-arrests-by-police-replace-school-discipline-1413858602 which requires logging in to view buuuuuuut, basically it is about the criminalizing of being a child. How zero tolerance policies and crazy rules make school a literal police state. And yet other schools turn a blind eye to crime, making teachers document months of interventions and feel good chats before escalating things enough to contact the parents or principal. Therefore students either end up ruling the school with misbehavior, or become too frightened to move. Ruling the school in misbehavior begets more interventions and the like, all ways to waste money and get nowhere so you can perpetuate the schools are in trouble idealogy. (Granted it is a real idealogy but no one in power wishes to fix the problem.) Or you can break down the student and use fear to coerce them into compliance.

About Me

If you know me, you know about me. If you don't know me and want to know about me, well, get to know me. :)
But in a nutshell, I am an educator in California. I am opinionated, passionate, love learning, have a sense of humor, I love nature and am a loving mother and wife.

Intro to the blog...

Quick intro here....this blog is written by me (of course). I am an educator in CA having worked in just about every grade and type of school in a short time. I hated school as a child which is why I wanted to become a teacher. I still hate school but love learning and hope some day to become one of those "powers that be" and transform education....into what it should be...a place that cares about children and truly wants to educate them to their fullest potential. Cut the crap and do the right thing! So I hope to be a voice of reason in our clouted tyranny of education. This blog likely won't get me there but it helps as an output for my emotions and thoughts that I can no longer keep quiet about.